E journal Week 2

Apparently last week I was not clear of how to go about deciding what to do my Instructional Design Project over, but hopefully it is clear now. So lets start from ground zero and go back to last week and add in this week as well.
Problem: Students are not engaged in cooperative learning groups in my English 1301 classes and often get off topic.
5 whys:
1. State why: This is a problem because only a select few of each group members are interacting during the group activities. So I will examine ways to get them all engaged & stay on topic.
2. The problem is occurring because some students may not feel they have prior knowledge that would be useful to the groups interaction. The students may also feel that their comments during the group time is not valid or worth sharing. Some of the students don't focus on the task @ hand and may need more direction.
3. Why is this occurring? This is occurring because students are not staying on task or interacting enough that their voices are being heard and their thoughts and level of thinking is becoming a valued part of the group activities.
4. Another why? Another reason this is happening is because the students are grouping into groups with just their friends, not diverse groups where they each would have something different to bring to the group.
5. Another why? Another question of why this is occurring could be to reflect on the content that we are studying and make sure it is not to much over their heads or too much below their critical thinking level.
Did this process revel any new insights? It did not, I have known this was an issue after finishing my semester last semester. I need to reflect on what changes need to be made to make sure that the learning groups are being successful.


Week 2:
For this weeks ejournal assignment we were asked to document our thoughts on the learning content for our project. I have been reflecting on how to make the learning groups better in my English 1301 classes for some time now and this project will give me a good chance to do it. In my classes there is a very diverse student population of many different races, and age levels. I have noticed that all the students seem to group their selves into like minded and like nationalities and that may not work the best to have successful groups. The learning content that I will be addressing is how to get the groups to meet a higher level of thinking but still be able to stay on task and meet the requirement's of the assignments at hand. I believe that cooperative learning is a useful tool and the students love it but I have to find the proper way through this project to implement.

ejournal week 1

I want to tell everyone up front that I am confused here on what we are supposed to be doing so I hope I am going in the correct direction. This is my 7th Educational Technology class, and already I have worked myself up to where I don't understand it. I am sure without a doubt it is a simple fix and once I speak to Dr. D I will say, wow it was so simple all along ;) But until then I am not sure what I am doing ;) Regardless, I don't want to fall behind so I will attempt to give this a try.

I would like to do my Instructional Design Project in some way based on the High School drop out rate here in Texas. I have a immense passion for at-risk students and feel that they are the ones getting "left behind" even though NCLB is such a huge factor in our state. I taught at an alternative school and saw first hand how high stakes testing affected the drop out rate. Students would drop out of school because they knew they couldn't pass that test, or they would become course complete but not be able to pass one section of the state mandated test. Why can't they state make it to where the test is weighted, where if a student isn't good in two subjects but passes the other two they can somehow weigh them all out so that they can at least get a diploma. Let's face it, not all students are college bound, even though again the educational system pushes them to go that route. Why can't we push more vocational training as we use to in schools?
Again, I don't know how this all plays a role in the Instructional Design Plan but I am sure somehow it will all plan out just fine.